Retopping my college beater
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:50 pm
In college I was gifted with a 1973 "Martin lawsuit" Takamine F-360. It's essentially an all-laminated clone of a Martin D-28. I played it hard and put it away wet but paid a luthier to do a bridge reseat and a "California" neck reset and enjoyed it for several more years before the bridge came back up and the X brace underneath cracked. Here it was in happier days:
At that point, I'd gotten the building bug and intended for my second build to be a replacement but instead opted to just reuse my forms and molds from my first build. Still, I dismantled the old Tak - actually, "butchered" is a better term - and took a look-see at its innards. Firstly, after pummeling the end cap into splinters and subsequently using a non-flush cutting saw I discovered that it had a butt joint. I also routed out the top (being careful to save the kerfing and binding) and discovered that the bracing was REALLY beefy and the bridge plate was both spruce and coming unglued. When I discovered this I felt pity and a good bit of unhealthy sympathy for my old friend. I imagine that many a cardiologist would feel this way halfway through a procedure.
Subsequent pictures are too gory to share, so suffice it say that now I have a "boat" and a severed neck. The top is toast because the bridge delaminated it in that area. It's been a couple of years and it's sat on a shelf in my basement awaiting its fate.
As a player I've struggled with GAS and have often dreamed of owning another sitka/rosewood dreadnought. For over a decade I have dreamed of owning a Martin HD-35 but when my wife graciously granted me seed money I squandered it on a D-16GT before discovering that an MMV would have scratched that seven year itch.
Well, here it is 7 years since I bought the D-16GT and my old friend is a cadaver awaiting a freakish experiment. My wife has said no more new guitars so I find myself cackling in my workshop screaming out "Frau Blücher!" (cue horse whinneying) and contemplating on creating an abomination: a FrankenMartin.
Last October I journeyed to Nazareth and took the Martin Factory tour. Before returning home I paid the Guitarmaker's Connection in the old factory a visit and purchased 1/4" bracing and an ebony belly bridge that I was going to use for a 00. I may yet undertake that project but now I'm thinking that maybe - just maybe - my old Tak could be reborn to resemble a D-35 (which as you know has 1/4" bracing.) Here is a picture of the bracing, alongside my second scratch build in progress.
What do you think? Should I do it? Am I mad - or should I just bury it in my backyard and hope it doesn't haunt me?
EDIT: Photobucket no longer allows third party hosting for my pictures so I had to remove the img twgs. *grumble*
At that point, I'd gotten the building bug and intended for my second build to be a replacement but instead opted to just reuse my forms and molds from my first build. Still, I dismantled the old Tak - actually, "butchered" is a better term - and took a look-see at its innards. Firstly, after pummeling the end cap into splinters and subsequently using a non-flush cutting saw I discovered that it had a butt joint. I also routed out the top (being careful to save the kerfing and binding) and discovered that the bracing was REALLY beefy and the bridge plate was both spruce and coming unglued. When I discovered this I felt pity and a good bit of unhealthy sympathy for my old friend. I imagine that many a cardiologist would feel this way halfway through a procedure.
Subsequent pictures are too gory to share, so suffice it say that now I have a "boat" and a severed neck. The top is toast because the bridge delaminated it in that area. It's been a couple of years and it's sat on a shelf in my basement awaiting its fate.
As a player I've struggled with GAS and have often dreamed of owning another sitka/rosewood dreadnought. For over a decade I have dreamed of owning a Martin HD-35 but when my wife graciously granted me seed money I squandered it on a D-16GT before discovering that an MMV would have scratched that seven year itch.
Well, here it is 7 years since I bought the D-16GT and my old friend is a cadaver awaiting a freakish experiment. My wife has said no more new guitars so I find myself cackling in my workshop screaming out "Frau Blücher!" (cue horse whinneying) and contemplating on creating an abomination: a FrankenMartin.
Last October I journeyed to Nazareth and took the Martin Factory tour. Before returning home I paid the Guitarmaker's Connection in the old factory a visit and purchased 1/4" bracing and an ebony belly bridge that I was going to use for a 00. I may yet undertake that project but now I'm thinking that maybe - just maybe - my old Tak could be reborn to resemble a D-35 (which as you know has 1/4" bracing.) Here is a picture of the bracing, alongside my second scratch build in progress.
What do you think? Should I do it? Am I mad - or should I just bury it in my backyard and hope it doesn't haunt me?
EDIT: Photobucket no longer allows third party hosting for my pictures so I had to remove the img twgs. *grumble*